The summer of 2016 was a memorable one for us. In July our daughter got married & in August we bought another boat!

We had originally arrived in France in October 2011, on our fifty foot classic yacht Amokora. We  left Gibraltar in May of that year, to spend the summer months cruising up the Spanish coast as far as Javea, then over to Ibiza, on up to Mallorca & finally on to the Panerai classic regatta in Mahon. From there we were encouraged by other yacht crews to sail over to  Sardinia to participate in the next Panerai classic regatta in Porto Rotundo.

After the regatta we had an exhilarating sail up through the Maddelena Islands & over to Bonifacio in Corsica, where we happened to moor next to the 80ft classic schooner Orianda, who bizarrely, 22  years previously, had been in our ownership, based out in the British Virgin Islands.

A Small world indeed, but that is another story entirely!

Currently owned by Italians, she was en route from Greece to mainland France, to participate in the Voiles de Saint Tropez which we had competed at, on her in 1990 & 1991 when it had been called the Nioulargue.

The crew were getting ready to pick up a charter but suggested to us that we should meet up with them over in France &  that we would be welcome back on board during the racing.

So we arrived in France at the end of September in time for the Voiles, where Peter was lucky enough to be invited to be helmsman again, on his beloved Orianda, for much of the racing, after which, we were again extremely lucky  to find a birth for the winter in Marines de Cogolin, at the bottom of the Gulf of Saint Tropez.

After spending the winter on board in Galiot, Marines de Cogolin, we subsequently sold Amokora the following April, & decided to try a spell living in France, up in the hills behind the Mas de Maures.

Four years later & Peter was again looking to find another old classic to restore & to compliment our life ashore. After all, what was the point of living so close to the Mediterranean Sea, without being able to enjoy being on it !

So on 31st of August 2016 Tara arrived in France & another adventure began.

We had decided to truck her over from the UK & so we arranged to meet the driver at Le Muy where he came off the A8, so that we could drive in convoy down to the car park in Saint Tropez where we had discovered a small yard with a crane large enough to unload her.

The trip down through St Maxime & along the cost road to Saint Tropez was hairy to say the least & I was full of admiration for the skill of the truck driver, as I watched him in the mirror negotiating all the 'roads-points' & creeping over the sleeping policemen, not to mention impatient French drivers on their way to work & in a hurry!

Luckily it was early in the morning  before the traffic on the coast road to Saint Tropez had come to a stand still & after negotiating the one way system in Saint Tropez, Tara arrived in the yard & after not too much hanging around, the unloading & re-launching began.

          Once she was launched the mast was craned over & re-stepped, & then Peter & our friend Benjy set about re-rigging her.